Modern printers have been configured to communicate with memory devices provided upon consumables which are utilized by the printers. The consumables are utilized by the printers during the formation of hard images. The printers are configured to communicate with the memory devices provided upon the consumables to write data thereto and to receive data therefrom. Data upon the memory devices can include information regarding the consumable as well as information regarding operations of the printer. The stored data is generally utilized to enhance the operation of the associated printer. Exemplary enhancements of printer functionality include provision of features to predict end of life or pages remaining with respect to the consumable using data stored upon the memory device.
In typical applications, printers and/or consumables may be physically relocated or associated with a different use pattern. One example occurs with high volume printing wherein the consumable is indicated to be near an end of life, however some quantity of the consumable remains. In such situations, the consumable may be transferred to a low volume application to expend the remaining life of the consumable. Such printer load balancing attempts to match changing work loads with the printer and/or consumable resources available.
Some printers are configured to perform predictive operations with respect to the consumable based upon previous usage. A change of use of the consumable or the printer may result in erroneous prediction operations being performed with respect to the consumable. For example, prediction of a likelihood that an image job will be completed using the consumable may be based upon previous usage of the consumable, and the usage may change during load balancing or for other reasons. Although some predictive capabilities include self-teaching or self-correcting algorithms, such typically require some time before identifying of the change of use and accounting for the change of use. In the meantime, erroneous predictions may occur based upon the previous usage information.
There exists a need to provide improved devices and methodologies which accommodate changes in usage of consumables.